


The Hunt for Gak's Birthday Present

by hcm92



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Charlie V2, D&D 5e, Drynna, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Exandria, One-Shot, Tal'Dorei, Tales of Gilnur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25811821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hcm92/pseuds/hcm92
Summary: This is a one-shot based in the same world and with the same characters as that of RebrobateGamer’s Tales of Gilnur ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/23700553/navigate ). It’s almost definitely not canon, but it was a fun session and I wanted to write it up to give RG a bit of a break from his writing duties.
Kudos: 4





	The Hunt for Gak's Birthday Present

Having made their way to Drynna, most of the group had taken up residence in a quiet inn. Ari and Vug had gone off to do their own things in the town which left Gak, Gilnur and Nehir to rest - or get drunk - and reminisce over their recent exploits in the K’Tawl Swamp together. Both Gilnur and Nehir had noticed that Gak had begun to act a little strange, getting up earlier and earlier to practice his sword drills and bandying himself around more, as if in anticipation of something. One morning, when Gilnur and Nehir had come into the main tavern room for breakfast, where they expected to see Gak sat shovelling a plateful of bacon and eggs into his mouth, they instead saw a short, slender human man eating in a relatively more civilised manner whilst also reading over some notes he seemed to be in the middle of writing in a fluster. He looked up from his breakfast and tipped his fork toward his head in a jovial greeting. “Good morning!”

Gilnur strode up slowly and bowed his head in his own greeting. “Are you waiting for us particularly, or are you coming to this inn to partake in its wares?”

The man scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I’m not too certain… I was looking for a Goliath.” Gilnur started describing Gak and the man nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! That sounds like the chap! So you’ve seen him?”

Nehir rolled her eyes behind Gilnur as he chuckled over the memory of the night before. “The last I saw of him he was trying his best to climb up the chimney last night.”

“He actually got pretty far.” Nehir looked over toward the chimney where it seemed the inn’s owner had attempted to clean up as much of the disturbed soot as they could. Gilnur walked over to it and looked up to check that there wasn’t a Gak still stuck inside the chimney’s mouth.

The sitting man started scribbling in his book and humming a tune, seemingly inspired by the idea of a Goliath getting stuck up a chimney. Gilnur turned back toward him, trying his best to be discreet about reading the notes upside-down. “I’m afraid I don’t know where he is; he wasn’t in his bed this morning. You could tell because there was no snoring.” He turned to the front doors of the inn. “He might be outside practicing with his weapons…”

The man shook his head. “Nah, I’ve been outside and there wasn’t anyone there.” He looked around the tavern with a quizzical look. “In fact, it seems quite quiet.” He then turned back to Gilnur, giving Nehir a cursory curious glance. “So you definitely know the chap I’m talking about?”

Gilnur nodded. “Yes, we spent the better part of a month with him, trawling around the K’Tawl Swamp. What do you need him for?”

“Well, to be honest, it’s kind of an errand. I um,” He started rifling through the pages of his notebook. “I’ve been investigating Goliaths and their tribes and folklore, and the music they participate in… And as it happens, I stumbled across Gak’s herd and they’ve kind of been looking for him as well. It’s come round to that time of year when the great Gnome yeeting competition is due and he is noticeably absent to defend his title. They almost mistook me for a Gnome, said I had the ears for it or something…” The man looked off absently, as if remembering the encounter, then shook his head and smiled back at Gilnur. “So, after a long conversation and a bit of persuasion - having to use my bardic charms and whatnot - they filled me in on the details and they’re looking for him to come back.” After having gone back and forth between the pages a few times, he seemed to find the right page in his book and pointed to one of his notes. “They also mentioned it was his birthday in a few days, too. Know anything about that?”

Gilnur shook his head. “That I do not. Nehir?”

He looked over to see her staring at him blankly. “What is a birthday?”

“It’s… the things where… the wolves have been around you for a year…” Gilnur frowned and then shook his head. “No, nevermind, I’ll explain birthdays later.” He turned back to the man and shrugged. “Gak hadn’t mentioned a birthday.”

Nehir cocked her head to one side. “He has been acting a little strange… -er, recently.”

The man’s curious look returned to Nehir. “Strange in what way?”

Nehir closed her eyes and sighed, as if just remembering Gak’s behaviour was enough to exhaust her. “Very eager.”

“I wonder…” The man scratched his chin again. “If he’s homesick, perhaps? Hmm.”

Gilnur scratched his own scaly chin. “Well, he can’t have gone too far. As I said, he was in the chimney until the wee hours.”

Nehir turned and wandered out of the inn’s front doors without a word as the man nodded thoughtfully. “Does seem reasonable. Have you given any thought to a sort of birthday present for him?”

“Uh, as he hadn’t mentioned it was his birthday soon, no. Uh… something he could throw, I would imagine.”

“Well, the people in his herd seemed to think this was a big occasion for him; I don’t know whether it’s a special birthday or something. But they did seem to indicate that it should be a big event.”

Gilnur chuckled. “Maybe we should see if we can find a dire wolf he can adopt…” At seeing the man’s surprised and quizzical expression, Gilnur laughed a little more heartily. “My friend Nehir… wherever she- she’s vanished, she does this. We met her as a white- and blue-furred dire wolf, and Gak was very taken with that form. He seems to have a thing for furry animals.”

“How interesting.” The man looked down at his notebook again and scribbled yet more notes, presumably about Gak’s love of furry creatures and their meeting with Nehir. “Dire wolf, you say. And you said you were in the K’Tawl Swamp when this happened?”

“That was where we were most recently, yes.”

“Well, that sounds like a fairly epic tale!”

Just then, the unmistakable sound of heavy footsteps bounding toward the inn could be heard and the front doors burst open for the still soot-covered Gak to stride in, with Nehir rolling her eyes behind him. “Hello! Good morning!”

Gilnur shook his head as he greeted him. “Morning, Gak. We thought we’d lost you for a moment.”

“No, no, no, no. Gak was just out practicing! You’ve got to keep your arm in for the Gnome yeetening, or when you get called upon you’ll never be able to do it and you’ll injure yourself.”

“Funny you should mention Gnome yeeting…” Gilnur gestured over to the man still scribbling in his notebook. “This gentleman here- I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name…”

The man looked up then bowed his head. “Benyou. Benyou Arloti.”

Gilnur bowed his head in return. “He says you are apparently being called for this Gnome yeeting to defend your champion title.”

Gak took a moment to peer at Benyou, then a look of recognition caused him to open his arms wide, nearly smacking Nehir in the face as she tried to side-step around him to get further into the inn, giving him a snarl as she did so. “Benyou? My friend! You’ve been with my herd?”

“Yes! I stumbled across them in my exploration of the traditional folk music of the Goliaths. You inspired me, my friend!”

Gak beamed. “Ha-hah, Gak like being an inspiration!” He then turned back to Gilnur with a frown. “Wait, you said I need to defend my title?”

Benyou nodded. “Yes, it’s that time of y-”

“THE GREAT YEETENING IS UPON US! I must go!” And with that, Gak charged towards the sleeping quarters, returning momentarily with his sword and backpack in tow to yell a quick “Gak see you soon!”, then ran out of the front doors, leaving them to bang shut in his wake.

Nehir raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Should we follow him…?”

Gilnur sighed. “I would think, considering the chance for property damage if we don’t, we should probably at least keep an eye on him.” He stepped outside to see if he could gauge the direction of Gak’s sprinting, but came back in shaking his head. “Benyou, since you already know the location of his herd, you may need to be our guide as our champion has taken off without us and already disappeared into the distance.”

Benyou nodded. “I can manage that. Just as a thought though, by the time we reach there it will probably be his birthday.” He gave Gilnur and Nehir a pointed look.

Gilnur turned to the bemused looking Tiefling. “Nehir, do you have any ideas for a birthday present for our big Goliath friend?”

“I… no.”

Scratching the scales on his chin again, Gilnur looked pensive. “I wonder if a woodcarver would have a life-size statue of a Gnome, that could perhaps be used as a club… Supposing the dire wolf idea is a no-go.” He turned to Nehir with his eyebrows raised in question and she narrowed her eyes back at him for a moment before seeming to think about it a little more and nodding in acceptance.

The barkeep, who up until this point had been quietly eavesdropping whilst cleaning some tankards, finally chimed in. “If you want to find a dire wolf your best bet would be to head out towards the farmlands. I hear reports from them occasionally complaining about dire wolf attacks. They seem to consistently go after the dire chickens that they raise out there.”

Gilnur looked to Nehir again. “How are you at placating dire wolves, Nehir? Is that within your skillset?”

She raised an eyebrow at Gilnur, almost as if she was mocking him. “I believe I am able to do that.”

“I suppose we would need a leash and some meat for it to eat…”

After discussing the details of dire wolf keeping and care, Gilnur and Nehir, accompanied by the newly acquainted Benyou, headed across the river into the more industrial side of Drynna to find a leatherworker’s shop in order to purchase a collar and lead for this potential dire wolf pet. The industrial district was still well-built but definitely less habitable than the residential area, and various unsavoury smells and sounds assaulted the trio’s senses. Going by the logic of leatherworkers wanting their shops to be as close to the tanneries as they could get, they set about looking around the nearest tannery for its nearest shop, coming to a building with a saddle hanging from a post outside it. Walking inside, the group found themselves surrounded by a lot of leather products of the black and shiny variety, with buckles and spikes adorning many of the pieces. As Benyou and Gilnur approached the counter, a strange figure clad head to toe in the same black and shiny leather as the pieces in his shop appeared through a curtain covering a doorway behind the counter. All that could be seen of him were his eyes and mouth.

Benyou cleared his throat. “Goodness… A, uh, good advertisement for your goods, there, sir…”

The shop’s owner nodded and spoke in a soft, lispy voice. “Hmm yes, I do like the feel of leather.”

Benyou muttered under his breath toward Gilnur. “I’m sure we all have our proclivities.” Returning to address the shopkeep, he cleared his throat again. “We were hoping to purchase something - something special - as a gift for a friend and we wondered if you sold anything that might resemble a large collar.”

“Hmm, I do believe we do have some collars. I have a few with brass buckles and some with spikes… Some with red accents… Tell me, is your friend large? Medium? Small?”

As Benyou tried to explain the size, Gilnur looked over to Nehir who then shifted into her dire wolf form. Although the shopkeep’s expression could not be seen, Nehir’s sensitive wolf nose wrinkled as she detected his fear in the form of the fresh scent of urine. Gilnur turned back to address the shopkeep. “This sort of size animal is what the collar would be for.”

“Aaahhh… that’s… uuuhhh… That’s a tall order, erm… Let me check the stock in the back, I’ll uh… be back in just a moment…” As he turned and scurried through the curtain into the back of the shop, Benyou and Gilnur noticed that he seemed to have missed two large patches out of the leather on the seat of his trousers.

Gilnur leaned toward Benyou and muttered under his breath. “Do you think that was deliberate, or do you think it’s as a result of sitting down too much?”

“Uh, maybe there’s some sort of functionality in missing that particular part of his anatomy… I’m not sure what it would be, but…”

The two continued to throw suggestions back and forth, mentioning a few places in which this sort of fashion choice would probably pass as the norm, and somehow got around to talking about what Gak might call a dire wolf pet, until Gilnur noticed Nehir in her dire wolf form desperately trying to cover her nose with her legs. He rummaged around in his pockets for a seed which he then magically grew into a sweet smelling flower and held out for Nehir to sniff.

The shopkeep then returned. “Um, no, unfortunately we have, uh, nothing of that nature, er, something that size…” His eyes were fixed on the dire wolf that filled the room and was now sneezing after sniffing Gilnur’s flower too strongly.

Gilnur sighed. “Could you then suggest one of your other fellow leather merchants who might have something that we could use?”

“Yes, yes, uh… If you try Hudson - three shops up - he should have something very much more suited than I have myself.”

Gilnur nodded. “Hudson, three doors up. Thank you kindly.”

The trio then left the shop, Nehir barely able to squeeze through the door and causing quite a stir with the other shop purveyors on the street who did not expect to see a white and blue dire wolf with black antlers walking out of a leather shop, and headed up the road a short way to find Hudson’s. Inside the shop, the trio breathed a sigh of relief as these products had a much more normal colour and smell, and were all clearly designed for more wholesome uses.

“Hello, there!” A very short Dwarf strolled out from the back of the shop and stepped up a couple of steps behind the counter to reach eye level with Benyou. “Welcome to my shop, what can I do you for?”

“Well, as your friend three doors along recommended you to us - although he may not be your friend, considering you’re in relatively the same trade -”

“Three doors down? What were you after that you went to Pervert Jimmy’s?” After widening his eyes at the previous shopkeep’s name, Gilnur coughed and gestured toward the dire wolf Nehir who was still snorting flower pollen out from her nostrils. “Oh! Well, that’s a fine specimen of a dire wolf you got there! Strange colouration though and… are those antlers?”

Gilnur made an apologetic face at Nehir then turned back to Hudson. “It needs a collar though, apparently.” Nehir narrowed her black eyes at him.

“Hmm.” Hudson rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I think I can make something work like a collar for you. Yeah, I’ve got a…” He rummaged around under the counter for a moment and produced a very large leather belt. “I’ve got a belt here I can make do, I can put a loop and eyelet on there for you. Bear with me, it’ll just take a few moments…” He then jumped off his steps and went into the back, making grunting noises and swearing as he was obviously customising the belt to become more collar-like. After about twenty minutes, he re-emerged with the adapted belt, smiling broadly. “I think this could be just the thing! Would you like to try it on your fine dire wolf there?”

Taking the belt-collar from the Dwarf, Gilnur eyed Nehir cautiously who raised an eyebrow whilst still staring at him with narrowed eyes. “Uh… How about you just nod if you think it would fit your neck and I won’t try to fit it to you?”

Nehir continued her glare for a moment before sitting on her hind legs and gradually lifting her head to expose her neck. With an expression of complete surprise, Gilnur moved gingerly forward to gently attach the belt around her, being very careful not to get any of her fur trapped in the buckle as he fastened it. Nehir growled softly, rolled her eyes at Gilnur’s flinching reaction, then suddenly licked the side of his face, leaving him looking shocked and with many scales on his cheek standing at odd angles and wolf slobber dripping from them. As Nehir snorted in a sort of chuckle, he took a step back and appraised the belt from a safe distance, wiping the drool from his face and smoothing the scales down. “Well, it seems to be a good size, how much are you asking for this, master Dwarf?”

“Well,” Hudson hefted his own belt up and grinned. “It’s a fine bit of work, but you’re in luck! The man I was making this for - he made the deposit and then, uh, popped his clogs, so to speak! You don’t have a waistline like that and get to live all that long, y’know? So I’d say two gold is a fairly reasonable price for that.” Gilnur handed over five gold and the Dwarf thanked him profusely. He then held up a hand as if having an idea and hurried into the back of the shop once more, bringing back a long piece of braided leather. “This is something one of my apprentices was doing in his spare time; I clearly give them too much spare time! He was trying to make a bullwhip but, uh, he seemed to forget that bullwhips actually narrow as they go along. Whereas here he made six foot of exactly the same thickness. And as it’s apprentice work, it’s not quite up to my professional standards, so I’ll throw this in as a lead to go with the collar, seeing as you so generously overpaid!”

Gilnur nodded in thanks. “Very kind of you, master Dwarf, thank you very much.”

“No problem, no problem!” The smiling Dwarf then jumped as Nehir shifted back into her Tiefling form and glared at everyone with a filthy expression, the belt-collar now draped around her skinny neck and dangling down to her waist.

Gilnur bowed his head in acknowledgement. “We will not tell anyone else what we did, we promise.”

The trio bid the Dwarf goodbye and exited the shop, causing yet more commotion as the people that had watched a strange dire wolf walk from one leather shop to another seemed to be shocked that it had not exited Hudson’s with the same people it had entered with, but their fears were alleviated as he followed them out, beaming and shaking Gilnur’s hand. Nehir continued walking down the street, completely oblivious to the trouble she had caused, as the trio headed out of town toward the dire chicken farm they had been told had suffered from dire wolf attacks.

After about an hour of walking down a more rural road, it became fairly obvious which of the two farms in the near distance was raising the dire chickens as the smell was only surpassed by the sound of cackling chickens. As the group gradually approached the tall fence of the chicken pen, a yellow head with a long beak suddenly appeared above it, giving the trio a beady glare with one eye, and was quickly joined by several others. Unlike their smaller counterparts, these dire chickens were tall, with long thin necks and yellow plumage stopping just before the head and the blood red wattles. Their red eyes stared at the trio with an expression that radiated pure maleficence, and the trio knew that if the fence had not been there, they would be in a world of hurt. Nehir couldn’t help but stare back intently, studying these prehistoric looking creatures and mimicking their movements.

Gilnur rolled his shoulders back uncomfortably. “We should find a farmhand or whoever runs this farm and ask them if they’ve been having issues with dire wolves and where they’ve been coming from…”

As if on cue, and distracting two of the party from being almost mesmerised by these malevolent looking creatures, a clanking noise accosted their ears as someone wearing full plate armour stomped into view toward the pen carrying buckets of feed. The armour was battered, dented and scratched absolutely everywhere, and looking at the birds’ beaks, it wasn’t difficult to see why it was necessary. Gilnur raised his eyebrows in astonishment. “I thought my Orc plate was bad, but… blimey.”

Watching this plate covered farmhand stomp up to just shy of six feet from the fence, the trio were surprised to see that instead of throwing the meat from the buckets into the pen, the hand merely tossed the whole bucket over, causing the dire chickens to go into a frenzy and the cacophony to somehow raise in volume. Once both buckets were hurled, the hand finally turned to the trio and gave them an appraising look. “You’re either brave, or you’re stupid. What the hell are you doing at a dire chicken farm?”

“Looking for dire wolves…” Gilnur couldn’t take his eyes off the fence, behind which the sounds of squawking, tearing and gulping were deafening as the dire chickens bickered and fought over their feed. “We require… we need to hunt down a dire wolf, for… stupid reasons… and we were told you might have had some encounters with them here?” He glanced at the farmhand questioningly.

“Well, occasionally we get them.” The hand shrugged his shoulders. “I mean, sometimes they even escape the dire chickens.”

Benyou nodded. “I was wondering whether dire wolves would have a bit of bother with these chaps.”

“Oh, one-on-one a dire wolf can take a dire chicken. The problem is, the dire chickens are absolute bastards; there’s no such thing as a fair fight when there’s a dire chicken involved. If there’s a dire wolf, there’ll be four dire chickens attacking the poor bastard.”

Continuing to nod, Benyou regarded the chickens thoughtfully. “I had a feeling that might be the case.” He then muttered something just audible enough for Gilnur to hear about maybe acquiring a dire chicken for Gak instead of a dire wolf, and a short discussion was had between the pair as they continued to watch the carnage in horrified awe. At one point the image of Gak sitting on a dire chicken egg waiting for it to hatch was mentioned and Benyou began scribbling in his notebook again as Gilnur returned to address the farmhand.

“What do you farm a dire chicken for?”

The farmhand put his hands on his hips. “Well, believe it or not, they’re quite valuable; their flesh is considered a delicacy in some places. The leather you get from them is tough and hard-wearing. Uh, it’s not particularly pretty but, y’know. And the eggs make an incredible omelet, but it comes at an incredible price. I mean, trying to fight your way through this lot just for the sake of an omelet is probably more aggravation than it’s worth. So it’s a bloody good thing the government pay us to raise ‘em!”

“I have to ask,” Gilnur shook his head. “And I’m afraid to ask this question, but is it possible to get one of those things to imprint on you? When it’s born?”

“Oh gods, no. They hate everything from the moment they hatch.”

Gilnur leaned over to Benyou again. “You know it would suit Gak down to a T.”

“I expect you’re right there.”

“Though I think the dire wolf might be easier.”

As Benyou nodded the farmhand raised an eyebrow. “We did have a dire wolf attack last night, as it happens. There were nearly a dozen of them and they actually managed to kill two of these bastard things. But uh, the dire chickens took down most of the wolves. Two or three of them managed to escape, limping, bleeding. I would’ve followed the blood trail, but uh, I felt sorry enough for them already.” He shook his helmeted head.

Gilnur raised an eyebrow. “Would it be of assistance to you were we to deal with those last two or three dire wolves?”

The hand shrugged. “Sure, why not? I mean, whilst they’re not much of a threat to these chickens, a wounded dire wolf is not a good thing for the area. A wounded dire wolf would go for much easier prey, and some of the easiest prey around would be some of the fat merchants who bring their goods to Drynna.”

Gilnur nodded. “I think we can probably deal with those dire wolves for you then. Which direction did they head off in, last you saw?”

“Last I saw, they were heading to the north-west, toward the tree line. At least, that’s the direction the blood trail’s going.”

If anyone had looked at Nehir at that point they would have noticed her frowning quite intensely. As it was, Gilnur and Benyou thanked the farmhand and set off in the direction he had pointed out to them with Nehir in tow. The dire chickens only looked up from their food to hiss at them as they walked passed. The blood trail was easy enough to follow for the majority of the distance between the farm and the forest, but as it got closer to the trees, it started to thin out. Nehir voiced her concern for the wolf the blood had come from, as it seemed it had lost nearly all of its supply. Then, surely enough, they came across the corpse of a large dire wolf, its leg broken and countless gouges taken from its flesh, presumably by the dire chickens. Nehir made a face and crouched down to lay a hand on its body in mourning. She also had a questioning expression, perhaps wondering why the wolves would make such an effort to return to the forest when they were so injured.

After a moment, Gilnur cleared his throat. “Um, is there any sign of any others, Nehir?” She looked up and scanned the ground around them, then silently stood and started walking through the trees. Benyou gave Gilnur a questioning look and Gilnur lifted a shoulder. “Generally that means she’s got something and we’re expected to follow.” As they did so and moved deeper into the forest, the smell of smoke and cooking meat began to accost their noses and they became aware of voices calling out to each other. Eventually, they came across the source of these sounds and smells as a camp was revealed through the trees and a group of rough looking Dwarves could be seen, shouting to each other and hefting great pelts of fur around. As the trio dropped to a crouch to watch unseen, Gilnur looked over to Nehir to see her eyes had widened and her brows deepened. “Nehir? Why are you bristling?” She silently pointed toward the Dwarves. “You think they might know where to find more wolves?”

Nehir growled through gritted teeth. “They are wearing wolf fur.”

“Ah.” Gilnur turned to watch them again. “Would you rather we avoided these? Does the trail go into this camp or can we go around?”

Nehir hissed as a human man who looked to be the leader of this group walked in from the opposite side, followed by two more Dwarves carrying a wooden post, tied to which was a dire wolf. With a barked command from the human, the Dwarves dropped the post and its burden, then set about the grisly task of skinning the wolf. Though the trio had thought the wolf to be dead, as the Dwarves set their knives to it it became obvious that it was not, as it started howling and whimpering in excruciating pain. Nehir immediately jumped up and shot toward them, throwing her hand up to cast a spell which grew the grass around the trappers and entangled them in vines. The human was just able to avoid the vines but Benyou quickly stood and cast _Hold Person_ on him, causing him to freeze in paralysis. The rest of the Dwarves in the camp turned to defend against the attackers.

Gilnur readied his bow as he stood but held a hand up. “We don’t mean to interrupt; we just came for the wolf and we will be on our way and leave you about your business.”

Nehir apparently disagreed as she shot a _Frostbite_ spell at the human leader, her face a storm of anger. The leader broke free of the spell Benyou had put on him and began shouting in Dwarven, causing the ones not entangled by Nehir’s spell to rush toward her and attack, though none of them seemed able to hit her as she ducked and dodged their knives and crossbow bolts.

One Dwarf trapper attempted to shoot at Gilnur but missed him as well. In return, Gilnur used the hand he had raised to nock an arrow to his longbow and fired at the attacker, magically making the arrow explode on impact and causing viscera from the Dwarf’s guts to fly everywhere, including onto one of his comrades attacking Nehir and into the fire which worsened the stench of the camp. He then moved further into the camp, shouting angrily as he went. “We told you, we only want the wolf!” None of the Dwarves seemed to understand him.

Benyou moved to back up Nehir and cast _Eldritch Blast_ at the leader’s stomach twice, causing him to double over in pain, then called over to Nehir before being hit by a crossbow bolt from one of the Dwarves. “You can easily take those two!”

She appeared bolstered by his words and growled at the two Dwarves in front of her, raising her arms and chanting in Druidic, summoning two ethereal dire wolves into being either side of her and commanding them to attack the fur trappers. They snarled at the men who shared a horrified glance.

The leader shouted something in Dwarven, then ran toward the fray, throwing a dagger at one of the fey wolves. The Dwarves then continued their assault, the two in front of Nehir hitting her and one of her wolves with their bowie knives, but the others all missed their targets.

Gilnur shot and exploded one of the Dwarves nearest the injured dire wolf and brain matter splattered over those closest to him. He then turned to shoot the human leader through the fire, causing the arrow to alight and the man to be badly burned.

Benyou stepped closer to the leader between a fey wolf and a Dwarf trapper, being hit by another Dwarf’s bowie knife in the process, then attacked the leader with _Green Flame Blade_ , which also hit the trapper next to him and burned him alive. He then cast _Healing Word_ on himself to close the wound he had just received.

Another Dwarf from the back of the camp shot Gilnur, but it barely grazed him. The fey dire wolves then attacked, one ripping the head off the Dwarven shoulders in front of it and tossing it over Gilnur’s head as he ducked, the other missing a bite on the leader. Nehir attempted to hit the human leader with her quarterstaff, but she was reminded of why she rarely used it as it only gave him a slight bruise on his bare arm. In a flurry of movements, the leader split his attacks between the fey wolf in front of him and Benyou with his scimitar, then attacked Nehir behind him with his dagger, causing considerable wounds to all three of them. The three remaining Dwarves all attempted to continue fighting, but only one could hit Benyou with a crossbow bolt.

In quick succession, Gilnur shot and killed two of the remaining three Dwarves, then moved further round the camp whilst growling. Benyou hit the human leader twice with his rapier, causing two large wounds to open on his chest and start bleeding profusely, and was followed by the two fey wolves lunging to bite at him but missing. Nehir also hit him with her quarterstaff, and seeing that he was surrounded and didn’t have much of a chance in winning this fight, the human attacked the fey wolf in front of him as if to clear a way for him to escape. It vanished into thin air and the leader made a run for it, triggering everyone around him to take another swipe at him as he moved away, though only Nehir managed to reach him. He was looking mightily unhappy, holding his chest as blood gushed out of it.

Gilnur spotted the human trying to escape and aimed down an arrow at him, guiding it with a little magic to strike him straight in the back of the head. He was dead. Gilnur then turned to ask if they should kill the last Dwarf which Nehir answered with a snarl. “That’ll be a yes.” He turned again to shoot the final Dwarf still struggling with the vines that had enveloped him and dispatched him quickly.

As the remaining fey dire wolf poofed out of existence and Gilnur and Benyou started looting the bodies, Nehir rushed over to the injured dire wolf the Dwarves had started skinning and untied her. Casting _Speak with Animals_ , she was able to communicate with the wolf and was told that her pack mates had all been killed and that her pups were alone. Nehir nodded that she would find and help them just as the mother wolf died, then stood and turned around, her face contorted with rage. Seeing the pelts and butchered bodies of other wolves, Nehir growled at the other two to collect them all. “Do not let their deaths go to waste.”

After collecting as much as they could carry and laying out the bodies for carrion feeders, Nehir silently found and led the way, following the tracks the trappers had left from their capture of the mother wolf. After a while, she shifted into her dire wolf form and continued on, sniffing the ground and tree roots intently. Gilnur and Benyou followed quietly behind, as they could tell she was still on edge after seeing the carnage of the trappers’ camp. She led them north for a while before pausing to root around a seemingly particularly interesting tree, then she turned to see two dire wolf pups playing in a den, guarded by another injured adult dire wolf. This one had evidently escaped from the dire chicken farm, as it had the same gouges and scrapes the one in the tree line had.

Nehir approached cautiously, making submissive gestures to signal she was no threat. The injured wolf growled weakly and padded toward her, swaying with each step, before collapsing a few metres away. She bounded over and began licking his wounds as Benyou cast _Healing Word_ on him and his breathing evened out as most of his wounds knitted together. Nehir dropped her wild shape, shifting back into Tiefling form, and cast _Speak with Animals_ again to tell him that they meant no harm and wanted to help. The wolf told her what she already knew, that his pack was dead and the pups were not his. Nehir nodded. “You must find a new pack. We shall take care of the pups.” The wolf huffed in agreement then got up laboriously, took one last look at the pups who gave him quizzical stares in return, and walked off into the forest.

Turning to the pups, Nehir fished out some meat rations from her pack and held them out. Excitement overcame their fear as the pups leapt over to wolf down the treats. Gilnur leaned in to mutter to Benyou. “Congrats, it’s twins.”

Benyou nodded. “We’re going to need another collar…”

With her spell still in effect, Nehir told the pups that she and her companions were going to look after them now. They sniffed at her curiously. “You two-legs, but smell like wolf. Why wolf on two legs?”

Nehir half-smiled. “I am friend of wolves.”

“You teach us to hunt?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. You new pack now. You smell nice.” They then nuzzled into Nehir, nearly bowling her over as even as pups they were still the size of fully-grown non-dire wolves.

Nehir half-turned to Benyou and Gilnur, who had kept a respectful distance in the nearby trees, and beckoned. “Come and meet our new friends.”

“More than happy to!” Benyou carefully walked forward, making sure not to startle the pups, and sat beside Nehir. The pups growled a little at him, seemingly trying to protect their new packmate.

“If you hold out your fist for them to sniff, they will grow accustomed to your scent and be friendlier.”

Gilnur pulled out some pocket bacon and held it out as he approached.

“That also works.”

After they had all grown accustomed to each other, the trio and the pups set off to find Gak’s herd, following Benyou’s lead. The journey took a couple days and they were glad they had packed enough rations for longer, as the pups begged for treats at every opportunity. Nehir insisted they eat proper food as well and attempted to teach them to hunt, but when Gilnur and Benyou gave in so easily, it was difficult for the pups to resist using their puppyish charm on them for bacon. Nehir also despaired of Gilnur allowing the pups to ride on his shoulders instead of walking, saying they needed the exercise, but he still let them up every time her back was turned.

By around dinner time of the third day’s travel, there were obvious telltale signs that they were entering Goliath territory; the group passed shattered boulders, bones of large slain beasts, mangled swords, and the odd dazed Gnome wandering the mountainside. The sounds of shouting and cheering also rose in volume the further up they climbed. Just as the incline began to steepen, they were greeted by a Goliath who waved at them cheerfully. “Hello! Have you come for the yeetening? You’re a bit late to compete… and you’re a bit big to be yeeted, but we’d be willing to give it a try if you’d like to! My name’s Wallop.”

Gilnur bowed his head. “Hello, Wallop. We are here to see Gak.”

“Gak! The reigning champion! Excellent, I think he told me about you; the dragon-man he spent time with in the swamp, yes?”

Nodding, Gilnur smiled. “With Nehir and myself, yes. Many kills to our names going through that swamp.”

“He said he really enjoyed killing them snakes!”

“He did very well with those snakes.” Gilnur attempted to ignore the narrow-eyed glare Nehir was giving him and adjusted his shoulders so the pups that were lying as still as they could on them didn’t make him go numb.

Wallop continued. “He did mention he saw a giant blue puppy but he was sad because the puppy’s gone away.”

Adjusting his shoulders again, Gilnur smiled. “Well, we may have a solution to that.”

Wallop led the group further up the slope toward a sort of natural arena at the base of a particularly large mountain, around which crowds of Goliath and Gnome alike were watching and cheering as a familiar tall figure in the middle holding a heavily padded Gnome by the ankles swung round once, twice, thrice, and at the apex of the swing, let go of the Gnome who went flying up the mountain, hitting a snowbank a considerable distance up before gradually beginning to roll down, gaining snow as well as speed until it hit a makeshift barrier at the base with a soft thud. Gak turned round with his arms held high in victory as the cheer from the crowd roared louder, then he spotted the group and pointed before rushing over. “Hello! I’m the champion! Where have you been?”

Gilnur grasped Gak’s hand firmly in both greeting and congratulations. “We decided to get you a present on the way - we believe it’s your birthday soon?”

“It’s my birthday today, actually!”

“Marvellous. Well, we’ve got these fresh shoulder pads for you!”

Gak cocked his head in a puppy-like manner and looked at the wolf pups that were still lying on each of Gilnur’s shoulders, evidently trying their best not to move. Gak frowned a little. “Uhh, thank you? They look, uh, very furry. I will treasure them always?”

At that point, Gilnur shrugged his shoulders, forcing the pups to fall off and run about his feet, yipping in confusion at being dropped and all the unfamiliar sights and smells of the Goliath camp. Gak’s eyes widened and he dropped to his knees to say hello to them. Gilnur smiled widely down at him. “These are dire wolf pups-”

“PUPPIES! Are they for me?”

Glancing at Nehir who had a concerned expression, Gilnur chuckled. “You might need to share them with Nehir.” He then slipped some pocket bacon to Gak who happily fed them to the pups before turning his own version of puppy-eyes on Nehir.

Nehir rolled her eyes. “I shall aid you in looking after them.”

Gak grinned back at her, then returned to giving the pups fuss. “Do they have names?”

Benyou chuckled. “Not yet, I don’t believe.”

“I’ve got the perfect names for them!” He pointed to the one with dappled grey fur. “I’ll call this one Wallop, after my friend that led you here,” He then turned to point at the pup with solid grey fur and a white face. “And I’ll call this one Smack!”

Nehir rolled her eyes again but Gilnur chuckled. “Those sound like very strong names.”

“They are good Goliath names, ‘cause these are such good boys! Yes, they are!” Gak then lost himself in playing with his new pup friends, connecting with them instantly. The trio reasoned it was possibly due to him being on the same developmental stage as them, as well as smelling like nature, as he had evidently been rolling around in it quite recently. He grinned up at the trio again. “This is the best birthday a Goliath could ever have! Thank you!”

Gak then proceeded to parade around the Goliath camp with Wallop and Smack under each arm, showing them off to everyone he came across and giving them all the fuss and treats they could ask for. With Nehir following closely behind voicing her concern for them getting proper food and exercise.


End file.
